Hywel, a gifted singer himself, is currently sponsoring a sort of music festival at his castle in Ceredigion. At this time, Gwynedd is one of the larger of the Welch kingdoms. Hywel, the second son of king Owain of Gwynedd, is now serving as lord of Ceredigion, a small coastal area in Gwynedd. Gareth is now the captain of Prince Hywel’s guard. The methods they use to solve their cases in the absence of modern crime-solving tools (they don’t have access to fingerprint, DNA, ballistic, or fiber analysis tools, of course) seem entirely appropriate and plausible for the time. But the political situation in Wales in the twelfth century, in which the many tiny kingdoms that made up Wales at the time, and the endless intrigues between their rulers make these mysteries seem entirely plausible. At least some of the murders they are tasked with solving must be fictional as well. At least some of the characters are based on actual historical figures (although Gareth and Gwen themselves are at least mostly fictional). I love this historical mystery series set in twelfth-century Wales. The Unlikely Spy is the fifth of the Gareth and Gwen mysteries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |